A creative and engaging lesson that introduces students to Hitler and the key events from his early life. Students extract information to create a timeline of key events (extension tasks ask the students to consider the importance of these events), label key stages of his life and . create a front cover for a book about Hitler’s life. They annotate this to explain the relevance of their chosen illustrations and the plenary requires them to write a blurb to advertise the book. Student led and teacher friendly.

A double lesson that focuses on the economic problems 1919-23, the causes and consequences. A range of student led activities, such as a card sort, sequencing exercise, creating flow charts and analysing sources to determine the causes and effects of the economic crisis in 1923. The second part of this lesson sets students up for an 8 mark source based exam question (mark scheme and preparation activities included).

This lesson looks at the changes made by Hitler after the failed Munich Putsch. Students start by matching a range of Nazi Party changes to the explanations for these changes. Following this they create a graph to show change and continuity and degrees of change/ continuity (based on their opinion). A follow up task cements learning before writing up findings.

This lesson looks at the causes of the Depression and its impacts on Germany. Students create a fact file about the Wall Street Crash by extracting information from text and video footage (differentiated on PowerPoint). The main activity looks at some facts/ impacts on Germany which students link to categories and prioritise before wring up their findings in a newspaper report. Fully resourced and differentiated for all abilities.

Students are introduced to the concept of slavery and to the factors that led to the use of slavery in the Americas through a card sort activity. The focus of the lesson is on encouraging students to make a judgment based on evidence and to develop literacy and exam skills. There are a set of additional sources that can be used to supplement the card sort for G & T students who want to develop their arguments by adding additional evidence/ quotes to their arguments. Literacy support provided. As always there are clear step by step instructions

Phonics poster. Ideal for classroom walls or to give to individual students.

Easy to follow lesson on Queen Elizabeth. Students eventually make a judgement about Queen Elizabeth through, portrait analysis, card sort and discussions. Main activity requires class to create their own annotated portrait which summarises their decision. Literacy support/ differentiated materials provided.

This lesson looks at 3 key factors that contributed to the civil war (the role of individuals, money and religion). Students work through categorising and prioritsing activities before completing a Venn Diagram and a how far style question. As always there are clear step by step instructions and differentiated activities.

This lesson looks at the problems faced by the Nazi Party in 1933 and how they addressed these problems. In the lesson the class will need to work in groups (4 per group). They are presented with some memos linked to propaganda and they have to identify the problems (for the Nazi party) included in these memos. They will need to decide which issues are the most important (and justify this - a good opportunity to encourage deeper level thinking through teacher questioning). When they have done this they can begin to construct some possible solutions that teh nazi Party could have implemented. each group will present their ideas to the class (I use sugar paper and coloured pens so that they can makes spider diagrams or mindmaps). I also ensure that they use the sentence stems provided when speaking to the class to encourage literacy development. Each student will need to complete their own matrix. There is a homework task included in the presentation which compares the students solutions to the actual solutions implemented by Goebbels. This lesson teachers itself.

Students learn about the complexities of the Weimar Constitution, it’s structure and it’s strengths and weaknesses. A significant part of this lesson looks at proportional representation and there are tasks on the powerpoint that help students grasp the issues of this system and how it was significant in Germany at this time. The main focus is on students deciding if the Weimar Constitution had more strengths than weaknesses and which of these were most significant. The powerpoint includes a step by step guide.

The first of three lessons on the Munich Putsch. Students are presented with a list of statements which they have to organise into causes, events and outcomes. Following this they place into chronological order to create a story board of the key events and what they consider to be the key outcomes. This will give them an overview of the events before the following lessons examine the Putsch in more detail. A 4 mark exam question to finish.

A lesson on Henry VIII and the break from Rome. Students analyse a sketch from horrible Histories and note down the key reasons given for Henry’s break from Rome. They are then introduced to some sources which give an overview of the main factors that led to the break from Rome. Students discuss and record data during an active learning activity. They critique the sketch by writing a letter to Horrible Histories to explain how they could improve their TV series.

A lesson that looks at the key factors that led to a reduced support for the Nazi Party between the years 1923-29. Students categorise cards, prioritize evidence and create a mind map before using their knowledge to complete a Paper 3 Q3a style question. Literacy support and advice for the exam question included as well as exam tips and differentiated worksheets.

A lesson which encourages students to consider the arguments for the use of the atomic bomb and it gives students the opportunity to develop their own theories. The short video clip can be used to introduce the lesson. Before students examine the key arguments for the use of the bomb. A strong literacy focus to develop GCSE skills through counterarguments and using subject specific vocabulary. As always there are clear instructions and differentiated resources.

A decision making lesson on Dunkirk. The lesson includes source based activities, card sorts (categorising and prioritising) and a newspaper article for students to write up their judgement (literacy support and newspaper language provided). As always there are clear step by step instructions and differentiated resources to suit all abilities.

Easy to follow lesson which uses extracts from Pepys’ diary. Firstly students organise his extracts into chronological order and then fix them to a living graph to show how the extracts link to the progress of the Plague. They then use the extracts to find information and compare this to fact cards. Plenty of student discussion before discussing how useful the document is. Clear step by step instructions included

Starter activities for Year 7/8.

A lesson which examines the key factors leading up to the American Civil War. Students sort cards into categories, prioritise information, reach a supported judgement and complete a newspaper article activity. The lesson has a strong literacy focus and there are sentence stems, key word banks and differentiated materials.

Easy to follow lesson on the Civil War. Students are introduced to some facts about each side in 1642 which they use to collect evidence and score each side’s strengths and weaknesses at the start of the war. They record this data in a table which they then use to make a trump style trading card game for a royalist or parliamentarian. They add an annotated illustration (resources for this included in PowerPoint). The final task is writing up their findings by responding to the lesson’s question.

A lesson that focuses on the impacts that the atomic bomb had on Hiroshima. Students use the knowledge for the lesson to create a newspaper article which focuses on 4 key areas (that the choose). Literacy support and differentiated materials provided. As always there are clear instructions.